Beltrán L, Torsilieri H, Patkowski JB, Yang JE, Casanova J, Costa TRD, Wright ER, Egelman EH. The mating pilus of
E. coli pED208 acts as a conduit for ssDNA during horizontal gene transfer.
mBio 2024;
15:e0285723. [PMID:
38051116 PMCID:
PMC10790687 DOI:
10.1128/mbio.02857-23]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2023] [Accepted: 10/30/2023] [Indexed: 12/07/2023] Open
Abstract
IMPORTANCE
Bacteria are constantly exchanging DNA, which constitutes horizontal gene transfer. While some of these occurs by a non-specific process called natural transformation, some occurs by a specific mating between a donor and a recipient cell. In specific conjugation, the mating pilus is extended from the donor cell to make contact with the recipient cell, but whether DNA is actually transferred through this pilus or by another mechanism involving the type IV secretion system complex without the pilus has been an open question. Using Escherichia coli, we show that DNA can be transferred through this pilus between a donor and a recipient cell that has not established a tight mating junction, providing a new picture for the role of this pilus.
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